Classic Liverpool FC Quotes

Bill Shankly

“I want to build a team that’s invincible, so that they have to send a team from bloody Mars to beat us!”

“For a player to be good enough to play for Liverpool, he must be prepared to run through a brick wall for me then come out fighting on the other side.”

“I always said we had the best two teams on Merseyside… Liverpool and Liverpool Reserves.”

“Some people believe football is a matter of life and death. I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that.”

“The word fanatic has been used many times…I think it’s more than fanaticism. It’s a religion to them. The thousands who come here, come to worship…it’s a sort of shrine, [Anfield] isn’t a football ground.”

“It’s there to remind our lads who they’re playing for and to remind the opposition who they’re playing against!”

– On the ‘This is Anfield’ sign

“Take that bandage off! And what do you mean your knee? It’s Liverpool’s knee!

– To an injured Tommy Smith

“If Everton were playing at the bottom of my garden, I’d shut the curtains.”

“If you are first, you are first. If you are second…you are nothing.”

“If you’re in the penalty area and aren’t quite sure what to do with the ball, stick it in the net and we’ll discuss your options afterwards!”

“The trouble with football referees is that they know the rules but they don’t know the game!”

“I always said we had the best two teams on Merseyside…Liverpool and Liverpool Reserves.”

Kenny Dalglish

The people who come to watch us play, who love the team and regard it as part of their lives, would never appreciate Liverpool having a huge balance in the bank. They want every asset we possess to be wearing a red shirt.”

“The saddest and most beautiful sight I have ever seen.”

– On Anfield’s post-Hillsborough tribute

“Put ‘WE LIED’ on the front page of your newspaper.”

– On how the S*n could make amends to Liverpool

“There is no one anywhere in the world at any stage who is any bigger or any better than this football club.”

Bob Paisley

“We have a marvellous backroom team at Anfield who share the work-load wonderfully well. No club has a more able and closely-knit staff than ours. The Anfield boot-room has become legendary, and we have a full and frank exchange of views in there in a leisurely atmosphere every Sunday morning. It’s just like popping down to the local.”

“The whole of my life, what they wanted was honesty. They were not concerned with cultured football, but with triers who gave one hundred percent.”

– On Liverpool supporters

“I said that when I took over that I would settle for a drop of Bell’s once a month, a big bottle at the end of the season and a ride round the city in an open top bus!”

Gerard Houllier

“There are those who say maybe I should forget about football. Maybe I should forget about breathing.”